GREENGUARD Gold Certification

GREENGUARD Gold Certification (formerly known as GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification) offers stricter certification criteria, considers safety factors to account for sensitive individuals (such as children and the elderly), and ensures that a product is acceptable for use in environments such as schools and healthcare facilities. It is referenced by both The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System.

Program Mark

Products certified under this program bear the GREENGUARD Gold Certification mark

Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs)

The exposure to individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as detected in the C6 - C16 mass spectrometric analysis screen, has been adjusted to allow no greater than 1/100 of the currently published ACGIH® Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) and no greater than one-half of the California's Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs). In many cases, the 1/100 safety factor reduction of TLVs results in the most stringent requirements for an extensive range of VOCs. A total VOC or TVOC maximum allowable limit takes into account the complex mixture of all VOCs found to be emitting from a product, including those with and without TLVs or CRELs.

Emission Controls for Educational and Healthcare Environments

This standard is designed to define low-emitting materials suitable for environments where people, particularly children and sensitive adults, spend extended periods of time, in particular schools and healthcare facilities.

The GREENGUARD Gold Certification requirements comply with the State of California’s Department of Public Health Services Standard Practice for Specification Section 01350 (California Section 01350) for testing chemical emissions from building products used in schools and other environments. As such, GREENGUARD Gold Certified products can be used to earn valuable credits in the CHPS Best Practices Manual for K-12 schools, the US Green Building Council's LEED® Green Building Rating Systems, the Green Guide for Healthcare, the NAHB Green Building Guidelines, Green Globes, Regreen and many other building codes, standards and specifications.